Chief Digital Officer
Elevate
Sean M. McLean is a strategic technology leader skilled in guiding leaders and organizations through the complexity of modern technology including implementations. He has over two decades experience developing, delivering, and supporting strategic plans as well as translating technical requirements to business solutions. He is PMP Certified in Agile/Waterfall methodology.
Sean leads full-spectrum AI strategy and adoption initiatives—helping clients move from exploration to enterprise-scale execution. He identifies high-value use cases across operations, customer experience, and decision intelligence, then architects solutions using LLMs, vector databases, RAG pipelines, and agentic automation. Whether facilitating executive-level roadmaps or configuring production-ready AI workflows, Sean bridges business needs with technical precision. His focus on adoption ensures teams are equipped to sustain and scale AI capabilities—unlocking measurable value, faster.
Since 2000, Sean had worked at Petrinovich, Pugh, & Company, LLP, a California-based CPA consulting firm. He was most recently the IT director and director of technology consulting. At the firm, he worked with clients in a range of industries including professional services, technology, manufacturing, cannabis, automotive, construction, legal, retail, finance, real estate, medical, and non-profit.
He managed the firm’s technology implementations, budget, processes, and training as well as built process automation, agile development, data analytics, financial planning and analysis (FP&A), and financial consulting services.
Sean is also an accomplished speaker with national appearances at the AICPA Engage, Wolters Kluwer CCH User Conference, Boomer Consulting Summit and most recently at the Black Ore AI Tax Summit. He speaks on a wide range of topics including Innovation, Technology Strategy, Fractional leadership, and AI Operations.
In his free time, Sean enjoys travelling and exploring in his camper van with his wife and dogs. He is also a competitive power lifter. He resides in the San Jose, CA.
Technology has become the single biggest driver of capital demand in accounting, with firms investing heavily in AI, automation, workflow modernization, and tech stack optimization. But does private equity actually accelerate innovation, or simply provide the resources to move faster?
In this panel, technology leaders from the industry’s leading accounting platforms will discuss how access to capital, shared resources, and platform-level investments are influencing technology adoption across member firms. Attendees will gain insight into how firms are approaching AI, automation, tech stack consolidation, and operational modernization—and whether private equity is creating a meaningful competitive advantage in the race to build the accounting firm of the future.